Page 138 of A Wolfe in the Woods

For the first time since the nightmare had begun, the forest no longer felt like a part of that. What once felt hostile was now protective. The Hollow still stood. The people I cared about were safe.

The nightmare had finally ended.

I allowed myself to believe that what came next might actually be good.

CHAPTER 40

BLANCHETTE

Juniper Hollow had finally gone still. It was like a soft exhale, the release and relief, after a violent storm, one that had rattled your bones and twisted your insides into frenzied knots.

Hours earlier, as the moon hung overhead like a nosy, eavesdropping neighbor, it had been chaos. Fire trucks flashing red against the shadowed cabins that had survived. Police cruisers casting blue beams against the dark, somber trees of the forest. A Nightborne firefighter had shouted orders to his men as ash fell like snow and smoke curled toward the sky like apparitions of gray ghosts. A hybrid incubus police officer with curling horns had asked if I was okay.

Was I okay?

I wassafe, I’d supposed, not knowing how to answer him. When he’d asked the question, his hand hovering over my shoulder with concern, I’d sought out Jonathan among the chaos, my eyes flitting wildly around the wreckage of the scene. I’d found him near a paramedic truck—a different one than the one that had taken away Erik. He’d been in the process of getting his wounds checked out, claw marks, deep bites, long scratchesthat remained over his human flesh once he’d pushed the Lycan back. His blood was red, just like mine.

His eyes, however, had been glued on me, and I’d recognized the impatience over his features. We’d barely had the chance to talk, and they’d taken our statements separately. A special investigation squad from Graymore had helicoptered in—the Inter-Species Investigation Department, or ISID. A human kidnapping during a Lycan conflict would make news, especially if Erik Skoll was involved. Eldritch had stayed behind briefly to speak with them, but he’d purposefully left long before the press had ever made it the scene, likely headed for the hospital.

They hadn’t found Calder Fang Rhys, but I had no doubt that the ISID eventually would. There weren’t many places he could hide. With Bernie’s smoking gun against Skoll and my testimony about what had happened at the Circle of Thornblood—events I’d rather forget—I had no doubt they’d investigate it fully, that I would likely see splashy, dramatic courtroom headlines in the coming months on the front page of theGazette.

Or maybe I won’t,I’d thought, looking back at Jonathan as a human paramedic had bandaged his ribs. His blue eyes had burned into mine, a thousand unspoken things hidden there.Maybe I’m finally done with Graymore.

Now, hours later, the Hollow was finally still. The fire trucks had left, the police cruisers with them. The press had lingered, hoping to get an interview with May or Jonathan, who’d pointedly ignored their clamoring questions. Jonathan had finally threatened to give them something to write about if they didn’t get off his property, and they’d grumbled but packed up. The ISID had come back down from the mountain, decked out in gear resembling hazmat suits, giving the all-clear, and now I watched them speak with Jonathan near the parking lot.

May was sitting beside me as we waited on a bench near the reception cabin.

“What ya saw up there,” May said quietly, holding my hand in her lap, patting the back of it, “I’m sorry for it, dear. The spirits that live here, they protect their land. Aren’t always subtle ’bout it either.”

In my mind’s eye, I saw the splattering of blood, grotesque shadow creatures, the creeping, cloying fog spreading out from the stone circles. I heard the muted screams and my own heartbeat throbbing in my ears, as if to silence them.

My body ached in a dozen different places I hadn’t noticed before. Now that the adrenaline had drained away, exhaustion pressed into my tired body.

“Growing up in town, we always heard stories about these woods,” I told May, meeting her clouded eyes, her face tipped toward mine. I squeezed her hand. “I’m all right, if that’s what you’re asking. I think I always understood that there were things lurking here. And Fang and his men…they woke them up.”

I cast another look at Jonathan, who was nodding at something the agent was saying. He was in jeans an officer had retrieved from his cabin but still barefoot in the dirt. I was worried about him, though his wounds had been cleaned and wrapped and he’d been given a clean bill of health from the paramedic.

“Jonathan…he’d changed up there,” I said quietly. He’d saved me, protected me. But he’d been almost unrecognizable. “Became something different. More…powerful.”

More frightening.

“Jon was born on this land,” May told me. “He grew up here, breathed in this air, ran through these trees. The land has claimed him. The mountain remembers. The Lycan-kind have long been sentinels here. The blood of his ancestors was spilled protectin’ it too, and it’s a pact bound by centuries.”

Yet…he’d been ready to leave it all behind?

“He left once before,” I whispered, frowning. “Thought he wouldn’t return.”

“Then he did,” she said, a smile appearing on her face. “Because, as much as Jon tried to run from it, this landalwayscalled to him. He knows who he is now. I think he always knew…just not fightin’ it anymore. What ya saw up there…that was Jon-boy too, claimin’ his birthright to the land.”

When I looked back at Jonathan, he was looking straight at me, the other half, the Lycan in him, still evident in his gaze. The ISID agent he’d been speaking to slammed the door to the black car that would take them back to the helipad near Everwick. The red taillights illuminated the parking lot, the gravel crunching beneath tires, but Jonathan was striding toward me.

May patted my hand, standing. “That’s my cue to skedaddle.”

“May,” I said quickly, hanging onto her hand before she could float away. “Thank you.”

Her head tilted. “For what, dear?”

“In the woods. You were the owl, weren’t you? You helped me find my way. I don’t know if I would’ve made it out of there without you.”